Of Money & Murder
by Avalon.Roxy
Summary: A 1989 case is reopened when a skeleton is uncovered, leading Rush and Valens to a plot of embezzlement and murder. This story features Billy Cranston from MMPR.


**Of Money & Murder**

_Note: Don't own Cold Case, or the MMPR character featured in this story._

June 6th, 1989...

The day started out like any other at Barry Pharmaceuticals. Janis Cranston, the senior accountant was busy going through pages and pages of company financial records for the past year. After seeing some unusual gaps in the records, Janis went to talk to Renee Hughes, the company's assistant for the CEO. She was hesitant at first because they did not get along, but it had to be brought to Renee's attention. After a few minutes, shouts were heard in Renee's office, and Janis stormed out.

That night, after working late, Janis left at 9 o'clock to go home. Her's was the only car that was parked in the underground parkade, or so Janis thought. While walking to her car, someone pointed a gun at her, and fired twice. She was killed instantly. The killer then walked over to her body, picked her up and took her to his car, which was parked on the other side of the parkade. He wrapped her body and placed her in the trunk, then drove off. To where, is still unknown to this day. All that remains is a box of paperwork, sitting in the evidence warehouse, along with other cases that have gone cold. And a family waits...

Fifteen years later, in June 2004...

An area in one of the residential neighborhoods of Philadelphia had just finished being cleared for a new apartment building that was to be constructed. The work crew were digging out for the foundation of the building that day. One of the bulldozer operators had only dug twice before he saw something fall out onto the pile of dirt. He shut off the bulldozer engine and went to check it out. Pulling the bag off the pile, he called out, "Hey boss! Come take a look at this!" The rest of the crew walked overto where he was standing, as well as the foreman.

"What's up?" He asked.

"I dunno. I was digging and I uncovered this bag."

"Open it up. Let's have a look." Another crew member opened the bag, and made a grizzly discovery. Inside was a human skeleton. Within minutes, police and the county medical examiner(ME) were on the scene. With them were cold case Detectives Lilly Rush and Scotty Valens

"What have got for us?" Lilly asked one of the officers.

"Skeleton in a garbage bag. A construction worker uncovered it while digging out for the foundation of the new apartments they're building." The officer replied. Snapping on latex gloves, Lilly walked over to the ME van. The stretcher with the skeleton hadn't been loaded into the vehicle yet.

"Mind if I have a look?" She asked.

"Go right ahead." The ME replied. Lilly started by opening up the body-bag.

"Head's well preserved. Hopefully we can get a DNA extraction from the teeth." Lilly turned the skull over a few inches. "Look's like this person was shot twice in the head. Possibly the cause of death." Lilly opened the bag further to look for more clues. Inside a pocket, Lilly found something very significant, and pulled it out. It was an ID tag. "Janis Cranston, Barry Pharmaceuticals." She read. Lilly looked up at Scotty. "And I thought they knew about the Hippocratic Oath." She commented.

"I guess not." Scotty Valens replied.

Back in the city, Lilly, Scotty and policeLieutenant John Stillman were reviewing the case-file paperwork on Janis Cranston. "Janis Cranston, 37 years old. Went missing on June 6th, 1989." Lt. Stillman read aloud. "No body was ever recovered."

"Until now." Scotty commented. "Any next of kin?"

"Husband's name is Edward Cranston, and they, or he, has two sons, William and Bryan, aged 12 and 8. What an age to lose your own mom." Lt. Stillman replied with a note of sarcasm.

"Guess I'll be letting them know what's happening." Lilly took the paper with the family's information on it.

"Meanwhile, I'll get Vera and Jefferies to pay a visit to Barry Pharmaceuticals" Lt. Stillman said.

After finding Edward Cranston's last known address, Lilly and Scotty headed out to the area where it was located. But the person who answered the door was not Edward Cranston,it wasa woman. "Can I help you?" She asked.

"I'm Detective Rush, and this is my partner, Detective Valens. We're looking for Edward Cranston, but you're not him." Lilly said.

"Edward Cranston moved away in 1992. And I've been waiting, wondering when you'd come." The woman replied.

"Did he leave an address or phone number for where he could be reached?" Scotty asked.

"Yes, I'll just go get it for you." She said and disappeared back into the house. A couple minutes later, she returned to the front door with a piece of paper. "Edward told me before he moved away, about what happened to his wife, and asked me to save this. It's so tragic, what happened to her." She handed the paper to Lilly.

"Thank you very much for your help ma'am." Lilly told her.

"Anything to help Edward. He seemed like such a nice man." The woman replied and shut the door.

Over at Barry Pharmaceuticals, Detectives Nick Vera and Will Jefferies were talking with Norm Walker, the CEO. "When I heard about Janis' disappearance, we were all concerned, I too, especially. She was our best accountant. I even left her position open for a a couple of years, in case she came back." Norm explained.

"Did anyone have reason to hate Janis?" Nick Vera asked.

"No. She got along well with everybody. Janis was very personable. Well, there was only one person-"

"Me. We didn't get along very well." Renee Hughes interjected, walking into the office.

"And you are...?" Will Jefferies asked.

"Renee Hughes. I'm Mr. Walker's assistant."

"And you hated Janis Cranston?"

"Not exactly. We just, never got along." Renee replied.

"Any reason why?" Nick asked

"No reason, Detective. Sometimes personalities just clash. But that doesn't mean that I wanted to kill her."

"How do you know she was killed?" Will asked, with a note of suspicion

"When someone goes missing for this long Detective, it's natural to assume that they've met with foul play."

"If there's anything I can do to help your case, please feel free to ask." Norm Walker added.

"We'd like all the records of people employed from 1988 to the present, and the records of the type of work Janis did here." Nick told him.

"Well, Janis was an accountant, so it's nothing more than company finances."

"Sometimes finances play a part in murder cases Mr. Walker." Will said.

"Alright." He dug around in the file cabinets and pulled out several file folders. One pile was handed to Will, the other was handed to Nick.

Back at the police department...

"Hi, is this Edward Cranston?" Lilly was at the police department, and she had just got on the phone to talk to Edward.

"Yes it is. Who is this?"

"This is Detective Lilly Rush of the Philadelphia PD." There was a moment of silence.

"Is this about my wife?" Edward asked.

"Yes, it is-"

"She's been found?"

"Well, yes, but, I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but she's dead. And it looks like she has beendeadsince the day she went missing." More silence.

"Do you still have her body?"

"We do, and we can have it released to you right away."

"Actually, I'd like to come up to Philadelphia myself, along with Billy."

"Alright then, we'll see you soon." Lilly said.

"You don't know how long I've been waiting for this."

"Fifteen years is a long wait. That I do understand."

"Hey Will, take a look at this." Nick Vera was going through the financial records for Barry Pharmaceuticals from the 1980s to the present.

"What is it?"

"I've just gotten to the records from 1988 to this year, and there are all these gaps. Almost like someone deleted the records for those times." Will Jefferies walked over to Nick's desk to have a look for himself.

"Yeah, you're right. Who was the accountant then?"

"Well Janis Cranston was senior accountant then, but according to the employment records," Nick flipped through some papers, "there was a junior accountant with her, a James Callahan."

"What's his employment date?" Will asked.

"February 11th, 1988." Will looked at the page where the gaps started appearing.

"What have you found?" Lilly asked Will and Nick as she came in.

"The accounting records for 1988 to this year show a number of gaps, like someone was trying to delete something." Nick replied.

"Yeah, and a junior accountant named James Callahan started there in February 1988. Just after his arrival, the gaps start to appear. It's a coincidence, but I wonder if he's been up to something, and if he had some kind of help."

"Is he still working there?" Lilly asked.

"Still is" Will said.

"I'd say it's time to pay the company another visit. Find out if this James knows why there are missing records." She told them.

"We're on it." Will said as he and Nick put on their coats. Scotty Valens came up to Lilly just then, along with two men.

"Lil', they're here. I'd like you to meet Edward and William Cranston."

"It's nice to meet you." Lilly shook hands with both of them. "I just wish these were better circumstances."

"Well, I just want to say thank you for taking another look at the case. There hasn't been much in the way of closure for us these past fifteen years."

"I guess that's why you moved out of Philly?"

"Well, I had a job transfer then, but yeah, pretty much. Janis' disappearance has been pretty hard on us over the years. The wondering, not knowing, that kind of thing."

"I had a nervous breakdown in 1992, and was in the hospital for two months before the move to Angel Grove. Mostly due to bullying problems, but that was only the tip of the iceberg." Billy added.

"It was particularly hard on Bryan, being that he was only eight when Janis disappeared, and he never really got much time to be with her."

"Yeah, I was going to ask about him, since he's not here." Lilly pointed out.

"Bryan couldn't deal with things well, and it got him addicted to drugs and alcohol, which made things harder for us. He was in and out of rehab, but it never worked since he never properly faced his feelings, his anger, pain. Then in 1998, we just found him dead in bed at home, it was confirmed that he had overdosed on heroin."

"Oh, I'm very sorry to hear that." Lilly said.

"No need to apologize Miss Rush. He's at peace now, at least, that's what I like to believe. It's just too bad that his death came before really finding out the truth."

"So true Mr. Cranston." Lilly agreed. She turned to face Billy, "You seem to be handling things quite well for yourself now Billy."

"Yeah, but not without the occasional bumps. There are times where I get angry, and wonder why did it have to be my mom." Billy replied.

"Did Janis ever have any enemies?" Scotty asked.

"None. Which makes the reason for her death even harder to comprehend." Edward said.

"Did she ever talk about her job, what was happening during the day?" Lilly asked.

"Every time. Things seemed okay. There were the occasional bad days, but only because of hectic schedules, and deadlines to be met. But that was basically it."

"Uh, not exactly." Billy spoke up, as if to remind his dad about something.

"What do you mean Billy?" His father asked him.

"Something you remember?" Lilly asked.

"Yeah, mom had come home, and mentioned this arguement she had gotten into..." Billy replied, seeing a picture in his mind. It was of him as a twelve-year-old boy, and Janis had just come home from work. "What's wrong Mom?" Billy asked.

"Just had a rough day, that's all. I got into an arguement with Renee, the boss' assistant. I just wish she'd listen, and take a look at the these unusual gaps in the company's finances."

"Oh, okay"..."She told me that was about the accounting records being off, with all these gaps" Billy said.

"Janis had disagreements a lot with her about that?" Scotty asked Mr. Cranston.

"She would tell me about how she could not get along with this one worker. I guess that's who she meant. I must've forgotten the name." Edward replied.

Meanwhile, Nick Vera and Will Jefferies were at Barry Pharmaceuticals and they had caught up with James Callahan, who was on his break. "James Callahan?" Will asked.

"Yeah, that's me." He replied. "Something I can do for you gentlemen?"

"I'm Detective Will Jefferies, and this is my partner Nick Vera with the Philadelphia PD. We're investigating the murder of Janis Cranston in 1989."

"Janis Cranston was murdered? I thought she was just missing."

"Well her body was found recently, and we believe she was killed on the day she was reported missing." Nick said.

"And, what does this have to do with me?" James asked.

"You were working with Janis Cranston while you were the junior accountant." Will told him.

"I still don't see how her murder has to do with me. We got along well, never had any problems."

"Your CEO Mr. Walker let us have a look at the financial records from 1988 to this year, and there are all these random gaps," Nick pulled out the records from his briefcase, "We were wondering if you knew anything about them." James took a look at the papers.

"Well, I honestly don't know, gentlemen. Because I was the junior accountant at the time. It was always Janis that did the final work."

"When did you get promoted to senior accountant?" Nick asked, noticing his ID on the desk.

"A couple years after Janis supposedly disappeared."

"Alright. Well, I guess that's it for now. But, we will be back if we have any more questions for you." Will said.

"No problem." James replied as they left the office.

Lilly Rush was now heading up to Barry Pharmaceuticals, since she wanted to talk to Renee Hughes more about her not getting along with Janis Cranston. "Look, I told the other two detectives that Janis and I did not get along. Is that now a crime?"

"I'm not saying it is, but now I'm told that you and Janis argued constantly. More so, when James Callahan was hired.

"They were just your usual work-related arguements Miss Rush." Renee replied curtly.

"We took a look at those records that Mr. Walker gave to my associates, and we noticed all these random gaps in them, from 1988 onward."

"So?"

"Well, you wouldn't happen to know about that, would you?"

"No. That was Janis' department. Whatever went on there, it was not my area of expertise."

"And what about this James fellow? Why was he hired? I mean, I'm told that Janis worked just fine by herself since the time she was employed here."

"The company was growing, so Mr. Walker felt it was necessary to hire more help. To give Janis a lesser workload."

"But it's funny though, that's when the random gaps in the financial records started to appear. About one month after James was hired."

"Are you accusing James of something Miss Rush? Because I know him. Hell, I recomended him. He is an efficient accountant." Renee said.

"You know him? How?"

"That's none of your business."

"We're not accusing James of anything Ms. Hughes. Not yet. We're just, exploring all the possibilities." Lilly told Renee.

"What kind of 'possibilities'?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe James was embezzling money from the company." Lilly remarked casually.

"Miss Rush, that is absurd. James would never do such a thing! He'd be found out in an instant if that ever happened, which, it never has."

"Then how would you explain the gaps in the finances?"

"I don't know!" Renee snapped. "Miss Rush, I am on a very tight schedule, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Lilly got up.

"Okay, that's fine. But just remember this one thing Ms. Hughes: Someone was murdered. And we don't intend to rest until we find out who did it and why." She told Renee before leaving her office.

"So how'd it go?" Scotty asked when Lilly returned to the PD office.

"As soon as I casually mentioned something about James possibly embezzling company funds, Renee got noticably upset. In fact, she says that she knows James from before, and recomended him to Mr. Walker when he decided that more help was needed in the accounting department as the company grew."

"Think she might be in on this?"

"I wouldn't ignore that possibility." Lilly replied. "But right now, I'd like to see how James lives. Because most accountants don't live luxuriously. Many are in the middle class economic range."

"You could find out where he lives, drive over there." Scotty suggested.

"That's a good idea."

"Excuse me, detectives?" Lilly and Scotty turned to see that Billy was there. He had returned to the police department building.

"Billy, what can I help you with?" Lilly asked

"I was wondering, howeverything wasgoing? You know, with my mom's case?"

"Well, right now there's not much as of yet. We're only going on a hunch." Lilly replied.

"Oh. What kind of hunch?"

"I can't really say for now. I mean, I don't want to get your hopes up, in case it turns out to be a false lead. But we will let you know once we're sure. I can promise you that. Okay?"

"Yeah, alright."

"Don't worry Billy. We won't stop until this case is solved." Lilly told him reassuringly.

"Yeah, I know you won't."

When Lilly headed out to James' place, she was in for a shock. He lived in a very modest home, and the car he drove was not one of those fancy sports-cars. So where was all the money going IF James was involved in an embezzlement scheme? Lilly was going for her cellphone to call Scotty, when it rang almost at the same time. "Rush" She answered.

"Lilly, there's a man here who wants to see you. He says he saw Janis' murder." Scotty told her.

"I'm actually on my way back. But can you do me a favour? I need you to look up another address. Look under Renee Hughes, and see what comes up."

"Sure thing. On another hunch Lil'?"

"Well I went to see James' house, and it's a smaller place than I expected for someone involved in an embezzlement scheme."

"You think he might be hidingthe moneysomewhere?" Scotty asked.

"Well, you remember when I told you that Renee said she knew James from before? And how she also recommended hiring him as the junior accountant? I'm wondering if he was hired to help Renee embezzle the money, since he could cover it up."

"Should I get a subpoena for Renee's bank records?"

"You read my mind Scotty." Lilly said and hung up.

Back at the PD office, Scotty was waiting for Lilly, along with the man who was a possible witness to Janis' murder. "Lilly, this is Raymond Parker. He's the guy I told you about over the phone."

"Hi." Raymond greeted.

"I understand that you may have been a witness in this case, and that you have some information for us."

"Yes. You re-opened the Janis Cranston case, right?"

"That's right." Lilly replied.

"I think it was her I saw get killed." Raymond said. "It was in 1989 wasn't it?"

"Yes. On June 6th. Can you tell what you saw?"

"It was during a time when I was down on my luck, and living on the streets. I would always sleep in this one section of the underground parkade at this medical company, Barry..." Ray's voice trailed off.

"Barry Pharmaceuticals." Lilly finished for him.

"Yeah that's the one. Anyway, it was about 9pm, and her's was the only car that was there..." Raymond said, thinking back. He as a younger man back then was going to sleep whenhe heard two sets of footsteps. He looked up, and saw this man following Janis to her car... "Then he pulls out a gun, and shoots her twice."

"If you were to look at some photos for me Raymond, do you think you'd be able to point out the killer's face?" Lilly asked.

"Oh yeah ma'am. I never forget a face." Raymond replied.

"Just, one other question before I show you the pictures, how come you never came forward 15 years ago?"

"Ma'am, when you're someone like me, living out on the streets, surviving on wits, finding what you can, when a murder happens, and someone like me is around, naturally, the police are going to put the blame on them." Raymond explained.

"I understand." Lilly went to get the file, and came back with this green folder. "Now, what I'm going to give you are some photos of employees at the company. I'd like you to look at them very carefully. We believe her killer was someone she worked with." She explained, handing the file to Raymond. He opened it up and started going through it. He flipped through each page, turning them over when there wasn't anyone he recognized. Finally, "There. Him. That's the guy I saw." Raymond said, pointing at a photo.

"Are you very sure it's him you saw that night?" Lilly asked.

"Like I said before ma'am, I never forget a face." The picture that Ray pointed out, was the picture of James Callahan.

"I think it's time to bring James in." Lilly told Will.

Will and Nick returned with James several minutes later. With him also, was Renee Hughes, and they were placed in separate interrogation rooms. "Look I told you before, I was not there when Janis was murdered." James said indignantly.

"Can you back that up?" Scotty asked him. They were both in one of the interrogation rooms, Scotty in the first one with James, and in the other was Lilly, along with Renee Hughes. Will and Nick were watching what was going on via the two-way mirrors. They had also brought in Edward and Billy, and Raymond was also there too.

"Yes, that is definitely him." Raymond pointed at the window for the room where James was being questioned by Scotty.

"I was at home around the time Janis was killed." James said.

"Can anyone co-oberate that story?" Scotty asked.

"I live alone detective, so no. No one can back that up."

"See, that is a problem. With no one to back you up, and with someone who has positively identified you as the murderer, you're just digging a very big hole."

"Well what if that guy is lying? I mean, wasn't he a street bum?"

"Oh so now you think he's a liar because he was homeless?" Scotty asked sarcastically.

"Yeah, I do."

"Little punk." Raymond muttered. Edward and Billy didn't say anything.

"Come on, help me out here James." Scotty told him.

"I didn't do anything!" James protested. Over in the other room, Lilly was getting pretty much the same thing.

"I told you Miss Rush, Janis and I just never got along. It's no reason to murder her."

"Oh I'm not going to talk about that yet. We're here, because of those gaps in the accounting records." Lilly told Renee. Renee sighed.

"Which were Janis' problem, not mine."

"Oh they weren't Janis' problem, they were James'."

"Ugh, not again."

"I think you know what I'm about to say." Lilly said. "We subpoenaed your bank records Miss Hughes. And a few days after the date of each gap, a major deposit was funded to your account."

"Don't make me laugh." Renee said sarcastically.

"What was wrong Renee? Being the assistant to the CEO wasn't paying you enough,that you had to resort to stealing money from the company?"

"I was not stealing money!" Renee snapped.

"Of course not. You got James to do that for you."

"I told you he would not do such a thing!"

"Then where did all the money come from?" Lilly asked. "It certainly couldn't have popped out of thin air." Meanwhile, back in the other room, James relented, and broke down.

"Alright. I did it. I killed Janis Cranston." He admitted, finally.

"Okay, now that it's out, why?" Scotty asked. James sighed.

"Renee told me to." He said. Back in the other room, Renee had also admitted to embezzling the money.

"I knew Janis would never do it for me, so when James was hired, it was perfect. And since he was an accountant, he would know how to cover it up, to keep Norm from finding out." Renee explained.

"But it wasn't Norm who found out, it was Janis who did." Lilly added. "Is that what all those arguments were really about?" She asked Renee.

"Yes." Renee said, thinking back to June 6th...There was a knock at her office door. "Yes?" The door opened, and Janis came in. Renee sighed. "I assume there is a good reason for this?"

"Yes. I've been calculating these numbers, but they just never add up." Janis told her.

"Not this again. Look, you've shown me these records time and time again, but I keep telling you, they're perfectly fine."

"Then how can you explain these gaps?" Janis pointed out some of the gaps that were on the page.

"I don't know. Maybe there's something wrong with your calculation methods." Renee said.

"Oh they're perfectly fine. And I know it's not a computer glitch, since we got that problem fixed a month ago."

"Oh well there's your problem. How can you trust a computer that's had to be repaired?"

"How about a junior account that's been hiding something?" Janis asked.

"How dare you say that about James!" Renee shouted.

"Oh come one Renee! There was never any need to hire him!"

"Well what do you expect me to do about that?"

"Talk to Norm. Because I thinkJames has something to do with why these gaps keep showing up. And that never happened, until he arrived."

"And if I choose not to?"

"Then I will." Janis snapped and turned to leave.

"If you do that, and it'll be the last thing you do!" Renee yelled as Janis stormed out. She paced back and forth in her office for a few minutes, then picked up the phone. "James, I need you in here now." She said...In the other room, James was continuing the story to Scotty.

"Renee called me into her office." He said, remembering back..."What's wrong Renee?" James asked as he came into the office. "We've got a problem. She's on to us."

"Who?"

"Janis, your supervisor." Renee said.

"How?"

"She's discovered some gaps in the records."

"I thought I made it so that it looked like there was no money missing."

"Well evidently not. Either you screwed up, or she's obviously smarter than we realized."

"What do we do now?" James asked. Renee thought for a moment.

"We have to get rid of her."

"Renee! How can you think that?" James asked, shocked.

"Do you want to lose your job? James, she's threatened to tell Mr. Walker! You don't want to happen do you?"

"Well, no."

"I know I can't lose you. Not now. I need you to keep helping me get more money. I'm tired of this crummy job." Renee took a gun out of her desk drawer. "I want her taken care of tonight. No doubt she'll be working late, trying to figure out the 'problem'." She thrust the gun into James' hands.

As James expected, Janis was working late that night, trying to figure out why things weren't adding up. As Janis left her office, James started following her. He continued following her through the parkade. As Janis walked to her car, James pointed the gun at her head, and fired twice. Janis slumped to concrete ground, and James picked her up, carried her to his car on the other side, wrapped her body in garbage, put her in the trunk and drove off.

It is over. After fifteen long years, Janis Cranston's case has been solved, and two arrests were made. Renee Hughes, for embezzlement and conspiracy to commit murder, and James Callahan, also for embezzlement, and first-degree murder. As they were being led towards the holding cells at the back, Edward and Billy could finally face who it was that took Janis away from them so cruelly. James had a look of great sadness, but Renee did not even look up. She could not be bothered to face her victims.

Back in Angel Grove, a memorial service was finally held for Janis, so that Edward and Billy could finally get the closure they had been waiting for for so long, and so that final respects could be paid. Many of Edward's family were there, along with Janis' family, and so were Billy's friends Jason, who had brought his wife Nadya and their baby daughter Raveen, Tommy with his wife Kimberly and their son Carson, and Zack with his wife Sandy and their daughter Jaslean. Billy's wife Sarah was there too, along with their daughter Davina. Tahira, Maha, Aashna and others who were friends with Sarah were also there too. Janis was laid to rest next to Bryan, who never got to know her for very long.

In Philadelphia at the PD office, Lilly had the case-file box on her desk. Finally she could write the word "Closed" on the rim of the lid. She looked up, and imagined an image of Janis, watching, looking, and smiling, as if to say, "Thank you."

The End.


End file.
